A conventional bowling lane is fabricated of wood construction, of different species of wood depending upon the lane location. The lane is structured as a laminate with laminated strips of wood of substantial thickness extending lengthwise of the lane. Of course, during extended use, the surface of the wood lane becomes worn and irregular. Originally, wood lanes were resurfaced by sanding to restore the flat surface of the lane and refinishing. This procedure is time consuming and quite expensive and, because of the sanding procedure, an entire facility may have to be shut down when any one lane is resurfaced. To solve this problem, various attempts have been made to resurface a bowling lane by covering the lane with an overlay structure, usually a continuous homogeneous surface sheet extending the width of the lane.
For instance, thin laminates, on the order of 3/16 inch thick, have been used and simply glued to the surface of the existing lane. Such a laminate was too thin to afford a mechanical attachment and resulted in being too thin to withstand countless ball impacts during normal play.
Other attempts at solving the problem have included the use of a thick underlayment which can be mechanically attached to the existing lane, and then covering the thick underlayment with a thin synthetic laminate adhesively attached thereto. The relatively thick underlayment was fabricated of wood particle board, but these procedures proved to be quite expensive. Relatively thick aluminum underlayments have been used but they create undesirable sounds upon ball impact.
Another attempt has been to use a single, relatively thick, homogeneous fiberglass panel which simply is mechanically attached to the existing lane at the four corners of the panel. This resulted in the panels becoming uneven.
Still another attempt was to provide a factorymade, thin sandwich-type overlay structure and mechanically anchoring the structure to the lane at considerably spaced locations, such as on the order of four feet apart. The sandwich would include a particle board covered by a synthetic laminate made in the factory and taken to a cite for installation. Such sandwich structures would not stay flat and buckled between the anchoring locations.
A main concern with any type of mechanical attachment is the cosmetic consequences of the exposed mechanical means. In addition, the problems and dilemmas faced by lane designers, as exemplified above, are magnified when considering that a non-wood synthetic lane covering will respond to typical temperature and humidity changes differently from the wood lane it covers. Consequently, the synthetic covering must be firmly attached to the lane to either "move" with the lane, or to prevent the lane itself from moving significantly.
As can be seen from the above outline of various prior attempts at resurfacing bowling lanes, adhesives and/or closely spaced mechanical connections may accomplish these necessary results, except that adhesive attachment is quite expensive to perform, time consuming and generally presents an unhealthy environment, while mechanical fasteners or attaching means usually are cosmetically unacceptable.
This invention is directed to solving the above problems and satisfying the need for an improved covering for a bowling lane.